My other half had a bad crash yesterday and landed heavily on her shoulder (and head!). Collar bone is highly painful to the touch and shoulder is big, swollen and immobile but x-rays didn’t show a fracture, so the nurse said she had probably torn lots of things in her shoulder and has been referred to physio which should take about a week apparently.

It seems a bit vague to me, will the physio be able to establish what the damage is? I would have expected a doctor would need to look at it. I’m a bit wary as when I broke my collar bone, nobody told me what to do and I ended up with a frozen shoulder which kept me off the bike for months longer than the bone took to heal. There seemed to be a lack of communication between the doctor and physio and nothing happened until it was too late.

Is there anything to look into or push for in anyone’s experience?

If it was me, I would just go see a good private physio (immediately and often if required) and take the cost on the chin. NHS physios are just as good but it usually takes time for referral, there is not likely to be many sessions and seeing them can be a hassle as they are usually at a hospital somewhere.

No real advice to offer here aside from saying that you should keep on getting it checked out until you are satisfied an accurate diagnosis has been made, even if you have to pay.

About 15 years I fell of my skateboard and incurred a similar injury to the one you describe above. Toughed it out until the pain went away weeks later. After that my shoulder would spontaneously dislocate, which it still does. Went and had it checked out and found I had broken a broken a bone in there that holds the shoulder in. Only option now is surgery which after 15 years of getting on with it I am loath to do.

Perhaps get on the phone and call up the local physio’s and see if any of them ride, they might be more in-tune and sympathetic to your other half’s injury.

I did similar 2 years ago, damaged ligaments and muscle but the bone didn’t break. Between the incident and seeing pysio’s to being referred to a consultant and having cortisone then an MRI and finally having arthroscopic subacromial decompression surgery and a tidy up of the AC joint took 12 months then further physio once surgery was done.

Though I did see the A&E pysio the following day for a week who then referred me to the actual pysio department.

The physio I saw was pretty good but unfortunately the shoulder just wasn’t responding to treatment.

I could ride my bike 6 weeks after the incident but I had to be careful and often finished the ride in slight pain.

Did the same myself, initial X-ray showed nothing, got more and more painful, I had actually partially dislocated the AC joint and there was a also a bone chip floating around. I’d day if you are not happy with the opinion and it is not improving, press your GP to refer her to a shoulder specialist

i think I got hung up n the physo verses doc thing and actually that made things worse

You need a good physio. A good physio will say when they are out of their depth and you need even more specialist help

Don’t transfer your angsiety onto to your partner and make things worse, patients need to feel positive

Its going to take at least a week for the acute swelling to come down whatever so be a bit patient

Firstly, any good physio is going to tell you to immobilise the joint. This means a sling and strap atound the body, even at night in bed. Do this, don’t think it’s all ok 2 days later and take the sling off. If you’v properly damaged it, you will do more damage by movement.
Do you have private health care? If so, go see a shoulder specialist. If not, I reckon it’s worth the initial consultation fee to be sure of how a ‘no cost limit’ treatment would go. They may however want MRI / cat scans which ain’t cheap… Assuming its all ligament / muscle and no need of an op, yep, physio it is, and plenty of it with no wimping out if excersises.
Obviously all the ‘you’ in above substitute for your other half!

A decent physio will be as able to assess this as most doctors. However soft tissue injuries altho taking a long time to heal completely I would expect significant recovery quickly so if that don’t happen I would be off for another opinion from the hospital.

I have used http://www.sports-clinic.co.uk/ and I have confidence in her

You need to get a good physio, preferably one who deals with sports injuries regularly.
When I damaged my shoulder early last year, I asked round the local sports clubs and was pointed in the way of a physio who dealt with a lot of rugby players who damage their shoulders a lot in scrums, tackles etc. As I was not the usual burly rugby player, (I’m more the size of the ball)I ended being passed round her students too!! Made a world of difference.

She has probably done her AC joint by your description and the fact that the xrays did not show an obvious fracture. You need to see a doctor or go to a fracture clinic.
Don’t mess around.
Its plain sily having nurse practitioners on the front line in emergency departments in cities where doctors are available, but thats another rant.

Ouch! That doesn’t sound like a comprehensive diagnosis at all and I certainly wouldn’t be happy with that.

I’m recovering from a shoulder separation op, the NHS seemed to think it was OK to keep me waiting for 6 months by which time my collar bone (broken some 10 years earlier and not x-rayed) started giving me pain together with ever worsening lop-sided posture.

Don’t ignore it and if necessary, as suggested above, see someone privately.

Do hope she gets back on the bike again.